Story and Photos by Rusty Ellis
The York Institute Dragons fell behind early, but battled back with a huge fifth-inning to take down Monterey 13-10 on Tuesday.
Starter Ethan Haley got off to a rough start on the mound, as York committed three first-inning errors to immediately fall behind 3-0. The Dragons answered with two runs in the second to cut the lead down to 3-2, but more trouble in the field led to a 7-2 lead for the Wildcats at the end of the frame.
Nic Smith hit a solo home run to cut the lead down to 7-3 in the third, but Monterey once again answered with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning to re-take a five-run lead.
The two teams failed to score in the fourth, setting up for a wild fifth inning for the Dragons. After York loaded up the bases, Blaine York came through with the first big hit of the frame in the form of a three-run triple to trim the deficit to 8-6. Seth Helbig followed up with an RBI single to make it a one-run game.
After a Monterey error allowed two more runs to score, including the go-ahead run, Haley belted a two-run triple to push the score to 11-8. Tanner Tallent hit a two-run double of his own to make the score 13-8, completely shifting momentum to the York dugout.
The Wildcats plated two runs in the sixth to cut the lead to just 13-10, but excellent relief pitching from Alex Waters and Caden Stover closed out the game in favor of the Dragons 13-10.
York paced the Dragons with a 3-4 night at the plate with three RBIs, while Helbig added two hits and an RBI of his own for head coach Adam Bowden.
“I’ve told them from the get-go to not quit,” Bowden said. “We kicked the ball around the first couple of innings, and it didn’t look like the team we were capable of being…we had the big inning and strung some hits together, and I’m just super proud of my guys.”
The Dragons struggled to plate their first three runs of the game, but the fifth inning saw a big shift in approach at the plate in Bowden’s eyes, as he says he felt like his players showed a more selective mindset.
“We were swinging at good hitter’s pitches,” Bowden said. “We were squaring the ball up, and really hit it well that inning…we had some really good hard-hit balls and put some good swings up tonight.”
The job that Waters and Stover did to close the game may get lost in the shuffle in an offensive game like this, but Bowden says there was a lot to be happy about with how his two receivers performed in the final two innings. They combined for 4.1 innings of two-run ball and 11 total strikeouts, and though Stover’s outing started with a hit batter, Bowden saw a lot of positives on the mound.
“He hit the first batter and I think my blood pressure shot up,” Bowden said. “He shut them down after that, and they both threw a lot of good pitches. Monterey’s a good team, so I’m proud of my guys for not quitting, hanging in there and getting it done.”
